By MECHELE COOPER
Staff Writer
Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel (Oregon, USA)
Yoeun Ieng remembers crossing Cambodia under cover of darkness more than two decades ago, her tiny feet bloody and raw.
The Vietnamese army had invaded her country, and Yoeun, then 13, fled with a group of refugees to a border camp in Thailand.
"I never had shoes to wear and it was hard on my feet, there were open blisters all over," Yoeun said. "I had no idea where they were going. When they stopped, you stopped. When they got up in the middle of the night to go, you go."
Her flight to Thailand came four years after the murderous Cambodian dictator Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge guerrillas took over the country and killed more than 1.5 million Cambodians, driving urban Cambodians into the countryside in an attempt to "purify" the people for a future communist utopia.
It was during that time Yoeun was taken away from her family, a frightened 9-year-old, and put to work on a community farm.
Her family farmed the land in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, but her father also held the office of mayor. In 1975, he was taken away and killed because of his connection with the previous government.
She said people lived in fear when Khmer Rouge seized control of her country. Property and belongings were taken away and people were forced to work in the fields. Her family lost their farm.
She said Cambodians went without food and couldn't choose what they wore. Clothing had to be dyed black. Women were forced to cut their hair short.
"It was very scary," she said. "You could not talk or ask questions. You could end up killed for the wrong question. And nothing belonged to anybody. It just belonged to the group."
Today, for Yoeun, the terror, the killing, the poverty are all in the past.
Now 40, Yoeun has a new life in Augusta with her husband, Chhay, and their three children.
She is a hairdresser at Duke's Rotary Barber & Beauty Shop. Her husband is a registered pharmacist working at Hannaford's in Augusta.
Yoeun immigrated to the United States in 1985, a few months after Chhay arrived with his family from the same refugee camp. They had attended classes together at the camp school.
After what she went through in Cambodia, Yoeun said living in the refugee camp in Thailand wasn't all that bad.
She missed her parents, but at least she had food and medicine and could attend school. Refugees, she said, held on to the belief that someday a sponsor, either a group, church or family member, would help them emigrate to another country.
Chhay Ieng knew before he arrived in the United States that the language and culture would be different, but he didn't care. He was just excited to be here.
Like Yoeun, he came from a farming family. He said they lost everything during the war. Members of his family became ill and died from the harsh conditions they were forced to live in, working long hours in the fields without food. His brothers and sisters and his father all died.
And even though the refugee camp provided better living conditions, he always hoped he could make a life somewhere else.
"Life at the camp wasn't always easy," Chhay said. "So I didn't care about the differences (here in the United States) because we suffered for so long."
Chhay ended up in Rochester, N.Y. Yoeun came to Maine to live with her aunt.
Yoeun enrolled at Cony High School to finish out her senior year, but before she did, fate intervened and she was reunited with Chhay.
At the time Chhay, now 39, was a freshman at the University of Massachusetts.
"I had old addresses and kept writing letters back and forth looking for old friends who lived in the U.S.," Chhay said. "I contacted her in 1989. When she went on a Cony field trip to the Fine Arts Museum in Boston, I skipped a day of class to meet with her. But she didn't tell me the right museum."
Chhay remembers watching school buses drop students off at the Museum of Fine Arts, but Yoeun wasn't one of them. Finally, he asked a security officer if a bus from Maine was scheduled to arrive.
When he was told no, he hurried to the Museum of Science. Girls and boys in the refugee camp weren't allowed to associate with each other, but he remembered what Yoeun looked like. They also had a chance to write and exchange photos before the meeting.
Chhay recognized her right off. It wasn't long after their reunion that he transferred to the University of Maine at Augusta to be near her. On July 13, 1990, they were married.
The couple settled in Augusta and began to organize their new life together.
Yoeun said people in the community were more than willing to help them. She also had her sponsor, Patricia Snyder, who now lives in Oxford, and teachers at Cony to rely on. When she first came to Maine, while in high school, she received food stamps and financial aid from the state, she said.
After they were married, Chhay found a job at Central Maine Power Co. filing papers. He continued with his classes while his wife worked at a paper mill.
"I've been here over 20 years, and when I first came it was difficult," he said. "I had to repeat things so I could be understood. Most people's perception when you lack English is that you're totally stupid. I had some college, I wasn't a total idiot, so I thought if I continued school hopefully people would look at me more intelligently."
He stayed at CMP for five years and then got a job as a packer at Barber Foods in Portland.
It was during this time Yoeun and Chhay started a family. They had two sons, but leukemia took the life of their 3-year-old boy, Alexander.
"That was a tough time for us," he said. "My wife lost her job from Statler (Tissue Mill in Augusta) and we found out my son had leukemia. My wife stayed at the hospital all the time and I would stop by after my shift."
After their son died, they struggled to make ends meet. The commute to Portland became too much, so he and his wife applied for jobs at Carleton Woolen Mill in Winthrop.
The plant shut down two years later.
"I worked and went to UMA until the plant closed and then I was able to go to school full-time," he said. "The state paid for a relocation education program and paid for my tuition and books. I was able to graduate with a biology degree."
He thought about a career in medicine. It was something he had wanted to do since his boy died. But Chhay said he quickly realized it was too competitive. And it wouldn't have been easy with a family.
"Then I heard from a classmate about pharmacy school and it sounded very attractive," he said.
He attended classes at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Worcester for three years, then interned at the Hannaford Bros. pharmacy in Waterville.
Chhay spent most of his time studying at the University of Maine at Augusta library for the state Pharmacy Board exam, which he recently passed. He now is a registered pharmacist working at Hannaford on the Whitten Road in Augusta.
Yoeun was given similar opportunities when Carleton closed.
She enrolled at Capilo Institute in Augusta, and in 2000 was hired at Duke's Rotary Barber & Beauty Shop.
On a recent Wednesday, Yoeun was busy curling Lisa Hutchinson's hair at the shop.
Hutchinson, a barber at Duke's, said her friend worked diligently over the years to learn the trade and earn her customers' loyalty.
"She's very easygoing and flexible, and usually upbeat," Hutchinson said. "I think it's probably because of all she's been through."
Sally Farrell of south Gardiner, said Yoeun is a great cook and she loves her "kimchee," fermented pickled cabbage.
"I've learned a lot about cooking from her," Farrell said. "She's very meticulous the way she does things. She learned how to make salsa and added her own twist to it, which was great."
Yoeun said she continues to prepare the same dishes she grew up with in Cambodia and Thailand. For the most part, she has stayed away from American food.
"The first time I had pizza here I hated it," Yoeun said. "But the more I've tried it, the more I don't mind."
Yoeun and Chhay said they have always appreciated the support and kindness shown to them by members of the community.
They said they still care about their families left behind in Cambodia.
In 2001, Yoeun made a pilgrimage home to see her dying mother. She said she felt fortunate to be able to spend time with her before she died. It wasn't until 1988 that she was able to locate her.
"It's very different over there now," she said. "It's very poor. I went there for a month and was ready to come home.
"I want to take my kids back someday to meet my family, I have three brothers and two sisters still over there. There's just so much more opportunity here and people's health is a lot better in this country."
Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408
mcooper@centralmaine.com
The Vietnamese army had invaded her country, and Yoeun, then 13, fled with a group of refugees to a border camp in Thailand.
"I never had shoes to wear and it was hard on my feet, there were open blisters all over," Yoeun said. "I had no idea where they were going. When they stopped, you stopped. When they got up in the middle of the night to go, you go."
Her flight to Thailand came four years after the murderous Cambodian dictator Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge guerrillas took over the country and killed more than 1.5 million Cambodians, driving urban Cambodians into the countryside in an attempt to "purify" the people for a future communist utopia.
It was during that time Yoeun was taken away from her family, a frightened 9-year-old, and put to work on a community farm.
Her family farmed the land in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, but her father also held the office of mayor. In 1975, he was taken away and killed because of his connection with the previous government.
She said people lived in fear when Khmer Rouge seized control of her country. Property and belongings were taken away and people were forced to work in the fields. Her family lost their farm.
She said Cambodians went without food and couldn't choose what they wore. Clothing had to be dyed black. Women were forced to cut their hair short.
"It was very scary," she said. "You could not talk or ask questions. You could end up killed for the wrong question. And nothing belonged to anybody. It just belonged to the group."
Today, for Yoeun, the terror, the killing, the poverty are all in the past.
Now 40, Yoeun has a new life in Augusta with her husband, Chhay, and their three children.
She is a hairdresser at Duke's Rotary Barber & Beauty Shop. Her husband is a registered pharmacist working at Hannaford's in Augusta.
Yoeun immigrated to the United States in 1985, a few months after Chhay arrived with his family from the same refugee camp. They had attended classes together at the camp school.
After what she went through in Cambodia, Yoeun said living in the refugee camp in Thailand wasn't all that bad.
She missed her parents, but at least she had food and medicine and could attend school. Refugees, she said, held on to the belief that someday a sponsor, either a group, church or family member, would help them emigrate to another country.
Chhay Ieng knew before he arrived in the United States that the language and culture would be different, but he didn't care. He was just excited to be here.
Like Yoeun, he came from a farming family. He said they lost everything during the war. Members of his family became ill and died from the harsh conditions they were forced to live in, working long hours in the fields without food. His brothers and sisters and his father all died.
And even though the refugee camp provided better living conditions, he always hoped he could make a life somewhere else.
"Life at the camp wasn't always easy," Chhay said. "So I didn't care about the differences (here in the United States) because we suffered for so long."
Chhay ended up in Rochester, N.Y. Yoeun came to Maine to live with her aunt.
Yoeun enrolled at Cony High School to finish out her senior year, but before she did, fate intervened and she was reunited with Chhay.
At the time Chhay, now 39, was a freshman at the University of Massachusetts.
"I had old addresses and kept writing letters back and forth looking for old friends who lived in the U.S.," Chhay said. "I contacted her in 1989. When she went on a Cony field trip to the Fine Arts Museum in Boston, I skipped a day of class to meet with her. But she didn't tell me the right museum."
Chhay remembers watching school buses drop students off at the Museum of Fine Arts, but Yoeun wasn't one of them. Finally, he asked a security officer if a bus from Maine was scheduled to arrive.
When he was told no, he hurried to the Museum of Science. Girls and boys in the refugee camp weren't allowed to associate with each other, but he remembered what Yoeun looked like. They also had a chance to write and exchange photos before the meeting.
Chhay recognized her right off. It wasn't long after their reunion that he transferred to the University of Maine at Augusta to be near her. On July 13, 1990, they were married.
The couple settled in Augusta and began to organize their new life together.
Yoeun said people in the community were more than willing to help them. She also had her sponsor, Patricia Snyder, who now lives in Oxford, and teachers at Cony to rely on. When she first came to Maine, while in high school, she received food stamps and financial aid from the state, she said.
After they were married, Chhay found a job at Central Maine Power Co. filing papers. He continued with his classes while his wife worked at a paper mill.
"I've been here over 20 years, and when I first came it was difficult," he said. "I had to repeat things so I could be understood. Most people's perception when you lack English is that you're totally stupid. I had some college, I wasn't a total idiot, so I thought if I continued school hopefully people would look at me more intelligently."
He stayed at CMP for five years and then got a job as a packer at Barber Foods in Portland.
It was during this time Yoeun and Chhay started a family. They had two sons, but leukemia took the life of their 3-year-old boy, Alexander.
"That was a tough time for us," he said. "My wife lost her job from Statler (Tissue Mill in Augusta) and we found out my son had leukemia. My wife stayed at the hospital all the time and I would stop by after my shift."
After their son died, they struggled to make ends meet. The commute to Portland became too much, so he and his wife applied for jobs at Carleton Woolen Mill in Winthrop.
The plant shut down two years later.
"I worked and went to UMA until the plant closed and then I was able to go to school full-time," he said. "The state paid for a relocation education program and paid for my tuition and books. I was able to graduate with a biology degree."
He thought about a career in medicine. It was something he had wanted to do since his boy died. But Chhay said he quickly realized it was too competitive. And it wouldn't have been easy with a family.
"Then I heard from a classmate about pharmacy school and it sounded very attractive," he said.
He attended classes at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Worcester for three years, then interned at the Hannaford Bros. pharmacy in Waterville.
Chhay spent most of his time studying at the University of Maine at Augusta library for the state Pharmacy Board exam, which he recently passed. He now is a registered pharmacist working at Hannaford on the Whitten Road in Augusta.
Yoeun was given similar opportunities when Carleton closed.
She enrolled at Capilo Institute in Augusta, and in 2000 was hired at Duke's Rotary Barber & Beauty Shop.
On a recent Wednesday, Yoeun was busy curling Lisa Hutchinson's hair at the shop.
Hutchinson, a barber at Duke's, said her friend worked diligently over the years to learn the trade and earn her customers' loyalty.
"She's very easygoing and flexible, and usually upbeat," Hutchinson said. "I think it's probably because of all she's been through."
Sally Farrell of south Gardiner, said Yoeun is a great cook and she loves her "kimchee," fermented pickled cabbage.
"I've learned a lot about cooking from her," Farrell said. "She's very meticulous the way she does things. She learned how to make salsa and added her own twist to it, which was great."
Yoeun said she continues to prepare the same dishes she grew up with in Cambodia and Thailand. For the most part, she has stayed away from American food.
"The first time I had pizza here I hated it," Yoeun said. "But the more I've tried it, the more I don't mind."
Yoeun and Chhay said they have always appreciated the support and kindness shown to them by members of the community.
They said they still care about their families left behind in Cambodia.
In 2001, Yoeun made a pilgrimage home to see her dying mother. She said she felt fortunate to be able to spend time with her before she died. It wasn't until 1988 that she was able to locate her.
"It's very different over there now," she said. "It's very poor. I went there for a month and was ready to come home.
"I want to take my kids back someday to meet my family, I have three brothers and two sisters still over there. There's just so much more opportunity here and people's health is a lot better in this country."
Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408
mcooper@centralmaine.com
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